How to Regain Control of Your Website From a Previous Developer

On this page

1. Step 1: Work out what you need
2. Step 2: Find the domain registrar
3. Step 3: Identify the hosting provider
4. Step 4: Regain WordPress access
5. Step 5: Secure everything
6. Step 6: Consider moving
7. Prevent it happening again

It happens more often than you'd think: the freelancer who built your site stops replying, or an agency relationship ends badly, and you realise you don't have the logins to your own website. Here's how to take back control, step by step.

Step 1: Work out what you need

A website depends on four separate things. Find out who controls each:

1. Domain name: where it's registered and in whose name
2. DNS: where the domain's records are managed (registrar, host or a service like Cloudflare)
3. Hosting: the server where the site's files and database live
4. WordPress admin: the login to manage the site

Step 2: Find the domain registrar

Use a WHOIS lookup to see which registrar holds your domain. If it's registered in your name or company name, contact the registrar with proof of identity and ownership to recover the account. If it's in the developer's name, you'll need their cooperation or the registrar's dispute process. That's why domains should always be in your own name.

Step 3: Identify the hosting provider

Hosting lookup tools and DNS records usually reveal the host. If the hosting account is in your name, contact the host to recover it. If it's the developer's account, ask for the site to be transferred or for a full backup (files and database).

Step 4: Regain WordPress access

• Try the "Lost your password?" link with any email you might have used
• With hosting access, a developer can create a new administrator account safely
• Then remove or downgrade old accounts you don't recognise

Step 5: Secure everything

1. Change passwords for registrar, hosting, WordPress, email and FTP/SFTP
2. Turn on two-factor authentication
3. Remove old users and API keys
4. Take a fresh backup and check for anything suspicious; see signs of a hacked site
5. Update plugins, themes and WordPress

Step 6: Consider moving

If the site is on the developer's hosting, migrating it to hosting in your own name is often the cleanest fix; see WordPress migration.

Use this website ownership checklist once you have access back.

Prevent it happening again

• Register domains and hosting in your own name and email
• Give developers their own user accounts, not your master login
• Keep a secure record of all logins
• Get a handover document at the end of every project

See WordPress user roles explained and domain, hosting and SSL explained.